Schwetzinger Festspiele 1993
Concerto Köln
cond. René Jacobs; Patricia Schuman, Richard Croft, Kathleen Kuhlmann, Harry Peeters, Curtis Rayam, Dominique Visse
Additional information:
Links for the DVD of Monteverdi’s Poppea:
· http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=74883
· http://naxosdirect.com/title/100109/
Complete cast list:
- Poppea -- Patricia Schuman
- Nerone -- Richard Croft
- Ottavia -- Kathleen Kuhlmann
- Seneca -- Harry Peeters
- Ottone -- Jeffrey Gall
- Drusilla -- Darla Brooks
- Arnalta -- Curtis Rayam
- Nutrice -- Dominique Visse
- Valletto -- Etsuko Kanoh
- Amore -- Petra Pendzich
- Liberto -- Wilhelm Hartmann
- Lucano -- John La Pierre
- Pallade -- Anne Schwanewilms
L'incoronazione di Poppea synopsis
with material from Ellen Rosand: "Incoronazione di Poppea, L'", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (accessed 11 August 2007), http://www.grovemusic.com and The Earl of Harewood: "L'Incoronazione di Poppea"; The New Kobbé's Opera Book, ed. the Earl of Harewood and Antony Peattle (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2000), pp. 491-494
Dramma musicale in a prologue (omitted in this performance) and three acts by Claudio Monteverdi and others to a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello primarily based on books 13-16 of the Annals of Tacitus, but also Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars (book 6); Dio Cassius, Roman History (books 61-62); and pseudo-Seneca, Octavia; also incorporating the story of a Venetian lady who married a Medici duke; premiered 1643 in Venice.
In this performance:
Poppea [Poppaea], noble lady, mistress of Nerone, former lover of Ottone
soprano
Nerone [Nero], Roman emperor
tenor
Ottavia [Octavia], reigning empress
mezzo-soprano
Seneca, philosopher, advisor and former tutor to Nerone
bass
Ottone [Otho], noble lord, former lover of Poppea
countertenor
Drusilla, lady of the court, in love with Ottone
soprano
Arnalta, aged nurse and confidante of Poppea
high tenor/male alto
Nutrice, aged nurse of Ottavia
countertenor
Valletto, page of the empress
soprano
Amore, goddess of Love
soprano
Liberto, captain of the praetorian guard
tenor
Lucano [Lucan], poet, intimate of Nero
tenor
Pallade [Pallas Athene], goddess of wisdom
soprano
Prologue (omitted in this performance):
In the heavens the goddesses of Fortune, Virtue and Love contest their primacy; in a closing duet, Fortune and Virtue grant the victory to Love (Amore), who responds that they will have occasion to observe her powers this very day.
Act 1.i (outside Poppea’s palace) At daybreak, Ottone, returning from abroad, stands outside Poppea’s palace and sings of his love, first in a brief aria (‘E pur io torno’) that in form (ABA) and musical material (circling around the tonic) portrays the idea of returning, then in a longer aria (‘Apri un balcon’) whose third strophe terminates abruptly and pathetically in recitative as he sees Nerone’s sleeping soldiers and understands that Nerone is inside and that Poppea has betrayed him.
1.ii Overhearing him, the soldiers awaken, curse the love of Poppea and Nerone, and gossip about the court. Monteverdi increases the naturalism of this scene by overlapping its opening with the end of Ottone’s monologue.
1.iii Poppea and Nerone come out into the early morning light, where they bid passionate farewell to one another. Monteverdi intensifies the sensuality of their relationship by interlacing their texts where Busenello had given them successively. Musical elaboration of particular keywords, languid chromaticism and aria-like lyricism portray the lovers’ pleasure in one another. But by judicious repetition of words and interrupted lines, Monteverdi manages to portray the nature of Poppea’s power over Nerone.
1.iv Poppea talks with Arnalta about her ambitions for the crown, boasting that Love will assure her success (‘Speranza, tu mi vai … per me guerreggia Amor’), but her old nurse warns against trusting great men, Love or Fortune.
1.v (Rome, the imperial apartments) In one of the musical peaks of the opera, the recitative lament ‘Disprezzata regina’, Ottavia bewails her fate: rejected by Nerone, she is furious at the danger she faces of losing both husband and kingdom. She firmly dismisses her nurse’s advice that she distract herself by taking a lover, and vows to remain steadfast in her sorrow.
1.vi Seneca attempts to console Ottavia, urging her to stand firm. The page Valletto, remarking on the impotence of Seneca’s advice, ridicules him for his pedantry; Ottavia leaves to pray in the temple.
1.vii Seneca muses on the pain caused by the trappings of royalty.
1.viii He is joined by Pallade (Pallas Athene), who, from the heavens, foretells his impending death, promising to warn him again through Mercury. In an unusually florid passage, Seneca expresses his willingness to embrace death whenever it comes.
1.ix Seneca is then joined by Nerone, who insists, against his old tutor’s advice, that he will do exactly as he wishes: he will send Ottavia into exile and crown Poppea empress. This is one of the most dramatic moments in the opera as the two men, the one mature, thoughtful and moral, the other passionate, headstrong and immature, pit their wits against each other. Monteverdi escalates the conflict by once again interlacing the characters’ lines rather than presenting their speeches successively throughout, and he portrays the intensity of the conflict with his characteristic stile concitato (or warlike style), consisting of rapid repeated notes and forceful arpeggios. Nerone finally dismisses Seneca, but the philosopher has the last word: the worst is to be expected when power wages war against reason.
1.x In a succession of sensual evocations of their pleasure in one another, Poppea and Nerone, overheard by Ottone, discuss their happiness; he promises to make her empress and she, manipulating his weakness, insinuates that he is ruled by Seneca, whereupon Nerone impulsively orders one of his soldiers to carry a death sentence to the philosopher, closing the scene with an echo of Amore’s message in the prologue: today Poppea will see what Cupid can do.
1.xi In a strophic aria (‘Ad altri tocca in sorte’) Ottone reveals to Poppea his despair at having been replaced in her affections by Nerone, and she answers each of his strophes with one of her own, on the same bass, justifying her change of heart as the effect of Fortune’s favour. A more intense recitative exchange, which Monteverdi heightens through repetition and intercalation of Ottone’s and Poppea’s final lines, concludes abruptly with Poppea’s curt dismissal: ‘No more, no more. I am Nerone’s.’
1.xii Left alone, Ottone vents his despair and rage against Poppea in recitative bursts. He even contemplates murdering her.
1.xiii He is overheard by Drusilla, who complains that he is still obsessed by Poppea. He assures her that he will henceforth cast Poppea from his mind and heart and think only of her, but he expresses himself in a lyrical aria style that seems forced and artificial when compared with the recitative of the previous scene. Although Drusilla is suspicious, she is finally reassured and departs. But Ottone, knowing he cannot maintain his vow, confesses that his lips may say Drusilla but that Poppea is in his heart.
Act 2.i (The garden of Seneca’s villa outside Rome) Mercury, sent to earth by Pallade, announces to Seneca that the day of his death has arrived. Seneca rejoices in the news, and Mercury departs on the wings of his highly elaborate, melismatic song.
2.ii Liberto haltingly attempts to inform Seneca of Nerone’s death sentence, but his information is unnecessary. Seneca assures him that he is ready to die and asks him to inform Nerone that he is already dead and buried.
2.iii Seneca gathers the members of his household around him and in a poignant lyrical effusion (‘Amici è giunta l’ora’) informs them of his decision. They urge him to reconsider in a strikingly expressive madrigal chorus whose first section (‘Non morir Seneca’) is built on the imitative treatment of an ascending chromatic scale but whose much more cheerful, diatonic second section (‘Questa vita è dolce troppo’) suggests a certain lack of sympathy with his gesture. He is unaffected by their pleas and orders them to prepare his fatal bath. [A scene for Seneca and a chorus of Virtues is given here in some of the libretto sources, including Busenello’s print of 1656, but it is not set in either of the scores or mentioned in the published scenario of 1643 and thus was probably never set to music.]
2.iv (Rome) (omitted in this performance) Relieving the dramatic intensity generated by Seneca’s impending death, and providing the time necessary for the death to take place, the page and lady-in-waiting exchange a series of flirtatious arias. He begins with two strophes in lively duple metre (‘Sento un certo non so che’); she responds with a single strophe in compound metre (‘Astutello garzoncello’), and they join in a final lascivious duet (‘O caro, o cara’) featuring short imitative phrases and longer passages of parallel 3rds and 6ths in a style similar to that of the closing duet of the opera (see below).
2.v Nerone, having heard of Seneca’s death, joins with his friend Lucano in an extended, sensuous duet of continuously overlapping lines in praise of Poppea’s beauty. The second section of the duet, ‘Bocca, bocca’, is built on a major descending tetrachord ostinato, the same bass line as that of the closing duet of the opera (see below); in both cases it is surely the traditional association of that pattern with sexual love that is being invoked. This duet is one of the erotic peaks of the opera. Nerone ends the scene alone, with an aria (‘Son rubin preziosi’).
2.vi Ottone berates himself for thinking of harming Poppea. In a rather subdued three-strophe aria (‘Sprezzami quanto sai’) he recognizes that his passion for her will remain hopeless.
2.vii He is joined by Ottavia, who commands him to kill Poppea and to disguise himself as a woman so as not to be apprehended. When he initially rejects her command, she threatens him with blackmail. Although they both speak entirely in recitative, Monteverdi distinguishes powerfully between Ottone’s unfocused hesitancy and Ottavia’s forceful determination.
2.viii Reassured by Ottone’s declaration of love, Drusilla rejoices in an aria-like section enclosed by a refrain (‘Felice cor mio’). Valletto teases Ottavia’s nurse about her age, taunting her with the vision of Drusilla in love. In a two-strophe aria (‘Il giorno feminil’) the nurse philosophically agrees that spring is the season for love.
2.ix Ottone reveals that Ottavia has ordered him to kill Poppea and asks Drusilla for her clothes so that he can disguise himself in them. She readily agrees, responding with two reprises of her joyful refrain from the previous scene (a convincing dramatic touch added by Monteverdi that underscores Drusilla’s love for Ottone).
2.x (Poppea’s garden) Poppea, rejoicing at the death of Seneca, whom she recognized as the last obstacle to her ambitions, prays that Amore ensure her marriage to Nerone (‘Amor, ricorro a te’). She expresses undying affection to her nurse Arnalta, who, characteristically, cautions her mistress against too much ambition. Feeling drowsy, Poppea repeats her prayer to Amore and is lulled to sleep by Arnalta’s lullaby, whose circular melody and frequent, extended cadences actually produce a soporific effect.
2.xi Amore, descended from Heaven to prevent Poppea’s death, hides near her. She sings an extended aria (‘O sciocchi, o frali’), the four strophes of which elicit three different musical settings. Except for its added string accompaniment, the fourth strophe is the same as the first, thus creating a large-scale refrain form and one of the most extended arias in the opera.
2.xii Disguised as a woman, Ottone enters the garden and reluctantly attempts to kill the sleeping Poppea, but Amore stays his hand. Poppea awakens in time to mistakenly identify the fleeing Ottone as Drusilla, Arnalta calls the guards to pursue ‘her’, and Amore declares that she has saved Poppaea and wishes to make her empress.
Act 3.i (Rome) Drusilla rejoices in the hope that her rival will soon be dead and that Ottone will be hers alone. The expansive enthusiasm of her refrain, ‘O felice Drusilla’, ironically underscores her ignorance of the outcome of the previous scene.
3.ii Arnalta, the lictor and a number of his colleagues come to seize Drusilla, who sadly recognizes that her enthusiasm was mistaken and that she must now pay for lending Ottone her clothes.
3.iii Drusilla is brought before Nerone and, when questioned about the murder attempt, decides to shield Ottone and pleads guilty. Nerone furiously sentences her to torture and death.
3.iv Ottone burst in, refusing to allow Drusilla to accept the blame for his act; he confesses to the crime and blames Ottavia for instigating it. This gives Nerone the excuse to repudiate Ottavia, whom he banishes from Rome forever. He spares Ottone’s life and commutes Drusilla’s sentence, allowing them to go into exile together.
3.v After informing her of Ottavia’s guilt and exile, Nerone joyfully tells Poppea that they will be married this very day. This highly lyrical scene culminates in an expansive duet in which the two lovers sing together for the first time (‘Ne più s’interporà’).
3.vi Ottavia sadly divests herself of the imperial garments and bids farewell to Rome in a highly expressive recitative monologue, ‘Addio Roma’.
3.vii Arnalta exults in Poppea’s success and in her own improved station but remarks that she would have preferred to be born a lady and die a servant so that death would be more welcome.
3.viii (Nerone’s palace) After a lengthy expressive conversation between Nerone and Poppea filled with lyrical outpourings of love and contentment, Poppea, hailed by the tribunes and consuls in chorus, is crowned empress. Then Amore, descending from heaven with Venus, the Graces and the Cupids, crowns Poppaea as goddess of beauty on earth (omitted in this performance). The opera concludes with a duet for the lovers built on a descending tetrachord ostinato, ‘Pur ti miro’. With melodic lines that are very close to one another and continually overlap, this duet has been considered the perfect embodiment of the eroticism of the opera. Although it is generally agreed that the text of this duet is not by Busenello and the music not by Monteverdi – the text is certainly by Benedetto Ferrari, and the music may be too – it was probably introduced soon after the première of the opera. To a 17th-century Venetian audience no less than a modern one, it evidently served a crucial dramatic function.
The historical context of the opera helps to explain its extraordinary glorification of lust and ambition at the expense of reason and morality. Its libretto was the product of a libertine intellectual movement in Venice that was specifically concerned with the relative value of religion and sensuality. But the intellectual issues in the libretto become charged with feeling in Monteverdi’s music. He portrays the characters as human beings with strong emotions, fears and desires, who express themselves in distinctly different ways: Poppea and Nerone are prone to hedonistic lyricism in arioso, aria and duet; Ottavia speaks only in strongly etched recitative; Ottone’s music lacks focus, is hesitant and is limited in range; Seneca’s is bold and strongly directional. And their conflicts touch the very depth of their beings. For its broad moral compass and its psychological conviction, L’incoronazione di Poppea stands as the first in a long, if broken, tradition of operatic monuments that includes Don Giovanni and Don Carlos.
